Raiders vs Ravens 1st half summary: Old fashioned shoot out throughout 1st half

The Oakland Raiders started out with the ball against the Baltimore Ravens and they were not afraid to let Derek Carr throw it despite his injured thumb last week against the Cincinnati Bengals. They threw the ball 5 out of the first 6 plays and one of those passes was a beautiful 68 yard touchdown to Amari Cooper that made the score 7-0 Raiders. The drive went 80 yards in 6 plays and only took 2 minutes and 11 seconds to culminate in a touchdown for the Silver and Black.

Oakland's defense started in the exact opposite way from last week as well, Curtis Lofton recovered a fumble on the very first play from scrimmage for the Ravens. The first play on the ensuing drive the Raiders aired it out again immediately, this time in Michael Crabtree's direction. He was interfered with on the play so the Raiders were already in a first and goal from the 7 yard line. The Ravens defense held strong though and the Raiders had to settle for a 23 yard field goal from Sebastian Janikowski that made the score 10-0 Oakland.

Baltimore was already in a 10 point hole but they reacted to it pretty well by getting a long drive of their own, but they only managed 3 points for their efforts. They looked to be moving easily as they moved their way into first and goal on the Raiders but then D.J. Hayden made a play on one side of the field and T.J. Carrie followed suit on the other side after that to force the Ravens into a field goal. They kicked the easy 22 yard field goal through and the score after that was 10-3 Oakland.

Oakland had got the ball moving some but they eventually were stopped without points. The Ravens took over and drove down field easily on the Raiders defense. They missed a long pass that was badly under thrown to a wide open receiver, but they ended up getting the touchdown to their TE Crockett Gilmore on the next play anyway. Just like that the Ravens tied the game at 10, erasing the Raiders early lead.

After losing that 10 point lead so quickly it was fair to worry that things would start to go downhill. However, the Raiders immediately attacked the Ravens deep twice and then slammed Latavius Murray into the endzone on a 1 yard touchdown run to take the lead back, 17-10 Raiders. The first deep pass was caught by Michael Crabtree, and the second was a beautiful leaping reception between defenders by Andre Holmes.

Baltimore's next drive had the Ravens stopped on 3rd and short right away, but the Ravens decided to go for it despite being deep in their own side of the field. They ran to the outside where MLB Curtis Lofton had a shot at the running back but couldn't get there and Justin Forsett squirted around the edge for the first down. The very next play was a long completion to their TE Gilmore again and it got the Ravens down to just outside the redzone. A couple players later it was Crocket Gilmore yet again, powering and spinning his way in for the touchdown to tie the game once more at 17.

In need of another response again, the Raiders offense shows up for the challenge. They got stopped after a productive drive but not before getting into field goal range. Janikowski's 2nd field goal of the game came from 46 yards out and was straight through the uprights as the clock hit the 2 minute warning for the half. The kick gave the lead back to the Raiders again with the score being 20-17.

Not to be outdone the Ravens put together one last scoring drive before the half as well. The highlights of the drive were a first down on a 3rd and 15 run and a long catch by Steve Smith that was originally called incomplete but then overturned into a catch and fumble with the ball fumbled out of bounds. However, they ran out of time in the half and had to settle for a field goal to tie the game at 20 going into the half.